Sunday, June 30, 2013

I have seen a few discussions on this list from Book Riot where they recently wondered what it means to be well read. I think this is a great discussion. I try to be well read. I make sure that every few books I read is a classic or a book that people are talking about that made literature better. But what really makes someone well read? For me being well read is someone who reads a lot of different books in many different genres and being able to discuss these with other people.

I have crossed out the books on the list I have read. Looking over this list I feel that I pretty much am not well read. Some books on the list surprised me. Watchmen by Alan Moore is a good graphic novel. But I am not sure why it is on this list? Maybe to introduce people to that type of book? Fifty Shades of Grey? I am on the fence about this book being on this list. I mean.. I guess I read it so that I could know what people were talking about. 25/100 for me? Yikes. That is bad. I suppose it's because the past few years I have been reading a lot of young adult books and that's not really on people's list for well read books. I think I will still give myself a high five!

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

All Quiet on the Western Front by Eric Maria Remarque

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Klay by Michael Chabon

American Pastoral by Philip Roth

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Beowulf

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Brave New World by Alduos Huxley

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

The Call of the Wild by Jack London

Candide by Voltaire

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

Casino Royale by Ian Fleming

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

The Complete Stories of Edgar Allan Poe

The Complete Stories of Flannery O’Connor

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

Crime & Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

Dream of Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin

Dune by Frank Herbert

Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Faust by Goethe

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Game of Thrones by George RR Martin

The Golden Bowl by Henry James

The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

The Gospels

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Harry Potter & The Sorceror’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday

Howl by Allen Ginsberg

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

if on a winter’s night a traveler by Italo Calvino

The Iliad by Homer

The Inferno by Dante

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

The Life of Pi by Yann Martel

The Lion, the Witch, and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exepury

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie

Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

The Odyssey by Homer

Oedipus, King by Sophocles

On the Road by Jack Kerouac

A Passage to India by E.M. Forster

The Pentateuch

Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

Rabbit, Run by John Updike

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Slaughterhouse-5 by Kurt Vonnegut

The Sound and The Fury by William Faulkner

The Stand by Stephen King

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Ulysses by James Joyce

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee

Watchmen by Alan Moore

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

1984 by George Orwell

50 Shades of Grey by E.L. James

I plan on continuing adding books to my list that makes me well read. I really do try to read a variety of books. What do you think about this list? Do the books listed make someone well read?

Saturday, June 29, 2013

I just love love the Oatmeal. I visit the webpage all the time. For those that don't know the Oatmeal is a funny little comic website that just has great posts. Most people can relate to at least a few of the posts on the website. If you don't know about them and want to expereince the greatness of the humor for yourself you must read the Oatmeal's post on the Mantis Shrimp. Not only is the comic very but you will LEARN cool things! Ok back to dogs! Here is the goodreads description:

Matthew Inman dishes another helping of hilarity from his online comic The Oatmeal in My Dog: The Paradox. After years of carefully observing his own dog, Rambo, Inman follows his #1 New York Times best-selling How to Tell If Your Cat Is Plotting to Kill You, with this ode to the furry, four-footed, tail-wagging bundle of love and unbridled energy frequently dubbed man’s best friend. This eponymous comic became an instant hit when it went live on The Oatmeal.com and was liked on Facebook by 700,000 fans. Now fans will have a keepsake book of this comic to give and to keep.

In My Dog: The Paradox, Inman discusses the canine penchant for rolling in horse droppings, chasing large animals four times their size, and acting recklessly enthusiastic through the entirety of their impulsive, lovable lives. Hilarious and heartfelt, My Dog: The Paradox eloquently illustrates the complicated relationship between man and dog.
We will never know why dogs fear hair dryers, or being baited into staring contests with cats, but as Inman explains, perhaps we love dogs so much “because their lives aren’t lengthy, logical, or deliberate, but an explosive paradox composed of fur, teeth, and enthusiasm."

This book is perfect for dog lovers... well and anyone who loves pets.
The book is this comic but it is in color in the book. So lucky you! You can read it online and enjoy it with me. After reading the Oatmeal's book "How to tell if your cat is plotting to kill you" I wasn't sure if this one would live up to the humor in that book. But it does it just fine.

I had a dog growing up, Buddy. I sure did love that dog. I haven't had a dog now though since I moved away from home. I am just afraid they are going to be so much work. I am used to my two cats who just sit around and only need attention every now and then. I do miss Buddy. I will never forget the day that dog died. That is one of the topics I loved in this comic. I mean we just love these pets to death, who will never know ours names, we think they are going to live forever but their lives are just so short. Way too fast. My two cats have diabetes and I do my best to keep them alive and well. I even have a blog for them! I am trying to keep those guys around forever.

One thing that is neat about the Oatmeal is if people really like a comic it will become a tee-shirt, a greeting card.. or even a poster as in the case of this comic:

Anyways... check this book out. Buy this book for the dog lovers in your life. They may even shed a tear when reading it (and you might too).

Friday, June 28, 2013

Project Disney: The plan is to tackle all of the Disney films, re-reading the classic stories and tales that inspired many of them and to look at how the changes the filmmakers made, the new elements they introduced and the essential elements they kept. We will, of course, be talking about the films as movies as well, saying why we enjoy them and what some of our favorite moments are, but our focus will be on looking at them as adaptations. For the films that are not drawn from any one work we’ll be looking at some of the possible literary influences that we see in the stories. Inspired by Project Disney hosted by Picture Me Reading.

"Tale as old as time... song as old as rhyme"... This week's Project Disney's book and movie is Beauty and the Beast. I am so excited to write about this movie.. it's one of my favorites! This movie is based off of two storiesLa Belle et la Bête by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumon and The
Story of the Beauty and the Beast by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de
Villeneuve (you can read both stories from the links). I read both stories though the latter is much much longer and has a lot more detail. I recently watched this movie in theaters when it was re-released in 3D. Now that was amazing and if you didn't take the time to go to the theater and watch it you sure did miss out.

The book starts out with Belle having many sisters and brothers. Her father becomes poor because of a huge house fire and the family is disgraced because of this. In the book she is not called Belle but Beauty. Which causes her siblings to be jealous of her. Beauty's father then goes to the city to find some of his fortune that may have returned from sea. When her father gets there the fortune has already been stolen. He makes his way back to the country where his family is and becomes lost. The father comes upon a castle and enters it for shelter where he sleeps and keeps finding food ready for him. The father then thinks that the castle is his to own and begins to gather roses. Then the Beast reveals himself and is angry that the father was taking his roses (for Beauty). The father told the Beast the the rose was for his daughter Beauty. The Beast then tells the father that he can leave for exchange for one of his daughters. Who of course is Beauty.

Beauty sees her father in a magical mirror and sees that he isn't well. Beast asks her to marry him every night but Beauty refuses. He tells her she can go visit her father since he is alone now and her siblings have moved away. Beauty and the Beast story should be the story of the evil stepsisters, not Cinderella. The sisters see how happy Beauty is and decide to keep her longer at the house then a week (which is how long she told the beast she would be gone). Beauty finally says yes to the Beast and wants to marry him. Before they get married though... there is a twist in the story that is much different from the movie. You can also read about the Beast's story here. The fairy that we see at the beginning of the film actually raises the prince. When he is older the fairy wants to marry him (gross right?). She is an older lady and the prince doesn't feel right marrying her. The fairy is angry and turns him into the beast.

The Disney movie really follows this story quite well. The mirror, the library, the painting of Beast as a man, the spell on Beast. The household items aren't alive but there are monkeys and birds that talk to Beauty. My favorite characters of the film are the household items that talk likeLumiere, Mrs. Potts, her son Chip, and Cogsworth. The music in this film is amazing. I can sign along to every song. The art work for the film is one of the best I have seen yet in 2D form. The character Gaston is amazing for a great villain. He is cocky, charming, and evil all at the same time. Belle is one of my top Disney Princesses. I mean she READS BOOKS!

This story is so wonderful it's amazing how many spinoffs there has been. I still want to see the Broadway show. I did see the ballet put on by the Colorado Ballet and that was awful. They did not do a good job. I haven't checked out the new show Beauty and the Beast on the CW but it's still on so someone must be watching it. As always in my Project Disneys I include the Twisted Disney pictures (seen above) and the Annie Leibovitz pictures which are always so neat!

I can't end this post without posting a song from the movie!

Reading this story and comparing it to the film is really interesting. The story is really good if you want to take the time to read it. A really good fairy tale full of detail. This film too is outstanding. Several people I know says it's their favorite Disney film (mine is still Cinderella). What do you think of the movie and story?

Thursday, June 27, 2013

This is the day of the week where we get to know each other better by
answering a question devised by our lovely hostesses Parajunkee &
Alisoncanread. Sounds like GFC is eventually going away.. so you may
want to follow by email or bloglovin/feedly (I love both). And now for
this week's question....

A. I would say my favorite is a hardback book in my hands. Don't get me wrong though. I love my ereader. I have a Nook Color and really love it. If the library had more titles in ebook format that is probably all I would read. I don't read very many paperbacks. This is because I get most of my books from the library and they usually only have hardbacks for checkout. I recently listened to my first audio book. I listened to Under the Dome by Stephen King, 34 hours!! I did enjoy it. I thought at first there was going to be no way I could concentrate but eventually I got used to it and loved it.

I am participating in Harry Potter moment of the week hosted by Uncorked Thoughts . Here is what we do:

This is a meme hosted Uncorked Thoughts. The aim of this meme is to share with fellow bloggers a
character, spell, chapter, object or quote from the books/ films/ J. K.
Rowling herself or anything Potter related! I will be picking a topic
within HP for us to focus on each week and then if anyone wants to take
part feel free! There is
now a full list of the topics to come here.

Q. Favorite Moment from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets?

A. There were several great moments in this movie. I think one of the defining moments of the whole series happens when the students are practicing dueling. First off Snape and Lockheart are so funny when they face off. Then of course we have Draco and Harry dueling.

I think this is important for the relationship between Draco and Harry. We see them face off in front of the school which I think now seals the rivalry between them. Harry also reveals that he knows how to speak Parsaltounge and this will change how all students/teachers view Harry. Harry also learns he has more in common with Voldermort then he originally thought.

The time has come for Google Reader to leave us. So you don't have much time to find new ways to follow blogs and RSS feeds. I myself use Bloglovin and really like it. You can follow Angela's Anxious Life though Bloglovin, feedly, email (see the left side bar), and of course GFC. GFC may be going away too soooo you might want to try to follow a different way along with GFC just incase. There have been a lot of rumors floating around about GFC being pushed to Google + If you are going to use something else to follow blogs let me know! I love to explore and see what is out there.

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Well with the CBS show coming out this week..I knew I had to read this book. I am a huge King fan and had not made the time to dig into this book. 1074 pages later.. I loved the book. I actually listened to my first ever audio with this book too. 34 hours of audio. I went on a summer road trip so that was perfect time to listen! Also... I discovered a readalong for it as well and jumped in on that... though I haven't seen any updates for it at all, so I have been updating over at The Stephen King Fans group.

Here is the goodreads book description:

On an entirely normal,
beautiful fall day in Chester's Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably
and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force
field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a
gardener's hand is severed as "the dome" comes down on it, people
running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families,
and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is,
where it came from, and when -- or if -- it will go away. Dale
Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a
few intrepid citizens -- town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a
physician's assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave
kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at
nothing -- even murder -- to hold the reins of power, and his son, who
is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary
is the Dome itself. Because time isn't just short. It's running out.

What can I say. This book is epic. There are so many characters it's hard to keep track of. So much happens in this book I don't even know where to begin. I enjoyed this story more then I thought I would. When I started the book I was a little bored... like we just kept reading about all these characters stuck under a dome and that was it. But once I really got into the lives of each character and got to know them I was sucked in. Which is what King tends to do with his huge books. They are like a study of characters and how they interact. Honestly to me the Dome was the side story of the book.

I discovered reading this book that listening to audio brings out way more emotions in me then just reading it. I would cringe at the parts that were gross because I couldn't read fast to get past them. I would roll my eyes when the bad villain guy Remmey would do something awful. I even laughed out loud a few times! Next time I do an audio I probably won't pick one so long... but then again it was a perfect way to get through a long book and make a road trip go by super fast. In fact.. I was actually looking forward to driving so I could get back to the story. I will admit though.. I wonder if I would've liked the story the same if I had read it myself without the audio.

This is neat, Dome Day is Saturday, October 21, 2012. If you'll look at a calender,
you'll see that this day doesn't exist. Due to the Leap Year, October 21
skips from Friday in 2011 to Sunday in 2012. That is interesting and one of those things King always discovers and adds into his books. You just have to look closely to see these easter eggs!

Spoilers to come... do not read if you don't want to know what happens in the book ending!

I am OK with the aliens at the end. I didn't think of
that as a bad ending but I'll admit I was surprised. I thought it was
going to be something completely different. I still don't really get why
if people touched it once or touched the dome once they got a zap and
then after that no more zaps. I don't ever expect good ending from
King... meaning feel good endings. And I like that. For me life is
never a good smooth ride. It's bumpy and things never go right. I
think I am OK with the aliens because I didn't expect that and was quite
surprised.

I can't imagine living in a small town like
this even before the dome fell. I think I would've noticed right away
that Jim was terrible and an awful guy to be running a town. Jim was a
creepy guy because he really did think that the people of the town were
stupid and he was their savior. I am surprised that King said
in an interview that his favorite character to write in this book was
Chef. I didn't think Chef was that much of a main character compared to
Jim and Barbie. I loved that though Chef went and buried Sammy. That
was a beautiful thing. I was totally bothered by Andrea's death. To
think she had so much courage and strength and was ready to turn her
life around and then died. :'(

It's funny the comments about
comparing this book to the Stand. I did that too and I don't even know
why. I guess it is the size of the book and the fact that we get to
know all these characters though the two books are nothing alike. I
plan on re-watching the Simpsons movie now that I have read this book.
I haven't seen that movie in years and can't really remember it. But I
really want to see the similarities. Of course I am also ready to watch the CBS series Under the Dome that started this week. End SpoilersCBS has already released on Amazon what the DVD box set is going to look like for when the show comes out and it's amazing!